Jackson apologizes for 'crude' Obama remarks

[peewee's lovechild]

Jackson apologizes for 'crude' Obama remarks

NEW YORK (CNN) -- The Rev. Jesse Jackson apologized Wednesday for "crude and hurtful" remarks he made against Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama after finishing an interview with a Fox News correspondent.

Jackson told CNN's "Situation Room" that a "hot" microphone caught a part of conversation he was having with a fellow guest at the studio.

He said he made a comment about Obama "speaking down black people" followed by a crude remark.

"It was very private" he said, adding later, if "any hurt or harm has been caused to his campaign, I apologize."

The Obama campaign had no immediate comment.

Jackson's apology came a few hours before Fox News planned to air the remarks.

"I feel very distressed because I'm supportive of this campaign and with the senator," Jackson told CNN. "I was in a conversation with a fellow guest on Sunday. He asked about Barack's speeches lately at the black churches. I said he comes down as speaking down to black people."

He said Obama's message to black voters must be broader and serve as more than a "moral challenge."

The black community is faced with high levels of unemployment, home foreclosures and violence, "so we have some real serious issues -- not just moral issues," he said.

However, Jackson said after finding out about the open microphone, he immediately contacted the Obama campaign to apologize.

Jackson, whose Rainbow/PUSH Coalition is based in Chicago, Illinois, has publicly endorsed Obama, most recently in a piece published Tuesday in the Chicago Sun-Times, and says he enjoys a close relationship with the Obama family.

His son, Jesse Jackson Jr., is co-chair of Obama's presidential campaign.

The incident is the latest of several in which the issue of Obama's relationship with the African-American community has become a part of the campaign, raised either by opponents or by Obama's allies.

Nearly two weeks ago, Ralph Nader -- who's running his own presidential campaign as an independent -- accused Obama of attempting to "talk white" and appealing to "white guilt" in his quest for the White House.

"There's only one thing different about Barack Obama when it comes to being a Democratic presidential candidate. He's half African-American," Nader told Colorado's Rocky Mountain News in a June 26 story.

Obama is still bouncing back from the weeks-long controversy over his former minister, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, whose fiery sermons at Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ drew unwanted attention for the campaign. In the sermons, Wright suggested the U.S. government may be responsible for the spread of AIDS in the black community and equated some American wartime activities to terrorism.

Wright's sermons and his eccentric behavior at later public appearances became a major political headache for the Obama campaign, especially since Wright officiated the senator's wedding, baptized both of his children and was a spiritual adviser to his presidential campaign until he was asked to step down in March.

This week's remarks by Jackson were not the first time he criticized Obama. Last fall, he was critical of Obama's reaction to the severe charges filed against six black students in the beating of a white student in Jena, Louisiana, a racially charged case that sparked a national outcry.

Jackson accused Obama of "acting like he's white," according to a South Carolina newspaper that cited a speech by Jackson at the historically black Benedict College in Columbia.

"If I were a candidate, I'd be all over Jena," Jackson said, according to the The State newspaper. "Jena is a defining moment, just like Selma [Alabama] was a defining moment."

The newspaper reported Jackson later said he did not recall saying Obama is "acting like he's white," but he continued to criticize Obama and other presidential candidates for not bringing more attention to this issue.


http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/07/...ent/index.html

[peewee's lovechild]

REV. JACKSON TRASH TALKS OBAMA: 'CUT HIS N**S OUT'
Wed Jul 09 2008 16:28:20 ET

SHOCK: REV. JESSE JACKSON SLAMS OBAMA, WANTS TO 'CUT HIS N**S OUT'... APOLOGIZES FOR 'CRUDE AND HURTFUL COMMENTS' CAUGHT ON TAPE... FOXNEWS WILL PLAY JACKSON TAPE IN ITS ENTIRETY TONIGHT ON 'O'REILLY' 8 PM ET/5 PM PT... DEVELOPING...

Jackson Statement: For any harm or hurt that this hot mic private conversation may have caused, I apologize. My support for Senator Obama_s campaign is wide, deep and unequivocal. I cherish this redemptive and historical moment.

_My appeal was for the moral content of his message to not only deal with the personal and moral responsibility of black males, but to deal with the collective moral responsibility of government and the public policy which would be a corrective action for the lack of good choices that often led to their irresponsibility.

_That was the context of my private conversation and it does not reflect any disparagement on my part for the historic event in which we are involved or my pride in Senator Barack Obama, who is leading it, whom I have supported by crisscrossing this nation in every level of media and audience from the beginning in absolute terms._


http://www.drudgereport.com/flashjj.htm

[Nbadan]

.......he should know...Jackson has been keeping blacks down for decades

[Anti.Hero]

snip snip!

[JoeChalupa]

[RandomGuy]

Jackson has always been something of an ass. Next news story...?

[Cheese]

Jesse and Al need to STFU and sit down somewhere. Mark my words: THEY ARE GREEDY OPPORTUNISTS WHO DON’T GIVE A ABOUT BLACK PEOPLE!! They are INTENT on keeping us backward by telling us to constantly play the “race-card”, like it’s a ticket out of racism. That ain't gonna change . We need to uplift ourselves-get an education, deadbeat moms and dads need to step up and provide good role model for their children, stop falling into stereotypes, learn that being a rapper or video hoe is NOT a career option, learn how to SAVE and INVEST money-and how JUST getting paid doesn’t mean you’re financially secure, prevent rappers from inspiring our youth with their filthy and corrupting voices……The list goes on.

They do everything for PUBLICITY!!! Thats why Sharpton was at the Coon…er the BET Awards posing with rappers. My boy Barack will TRAMPLE over these two old farts who are too busy living in the past. Obama NEVER once played the race card and he appeals to all different sections of society. They’re just mad because there is a black man who ISN’T playing up to America’s worst stereotypes about black people.

His WIFE should have CUT HIS NUTS off for committing ADULTERY and conceiving a CHILD out of wedlock. He’s scared the funds he use from his pathetic a@@ charity will run dry...
__________________

[ChumpDumper]

Hopefully this completes Jackson's slide into irrelevance.

[RandomGuy]

Hopefully this completes Jackson's slide into irrelevance.

Amen.

[xrayzebra]

Hopefully this completes Jackson's slide into irrelevance.

You got to be kidding me. Obama still loves him and Al. It was all Fox fault they left the mikes open......

[ChumpDumper]

I'm not kidding.

Obama can take the high road here because Jackson's stupidity was on full display.

[xrayzebra]

I thought McCain was taking the high road? He just fired Graham for telling the truth but it made Obama crowd angry. Jesse didn't, no one said a word but Jesse and his
son who threw Jesse under the bus with Obama's Grandmother.

[JohnnyMarzetti]

Jesse Jackson, jr. really let his father have it today!!

[RobinsontoDuncan]

I thought McCain was taking the high road? He just fired Graham for telling the truth but it made Obama crowd angry. Jesse didn't, no one said a word but Jesse and his
son who threw Jesse under the bus with Obama's Grandmother.

i'm sorry were you hoping Jesse Jackson Jr., who is one of the top campaign managers for Obama, would side with his father and demand to see Obama's nuts cut off?

you're an ass old man

[Wild Cobra]

Hopefully this completes Jackson's slide into irrelevance.

One of the few things we seem to agree on.

[ChumpDumper]

I thought McCain was taking the high road? He just fired Graham for telling the truth but it made Obama crowd angry. Jesse didn't, no one said a word but Jesse and his
son who threw Jesse under the bus with Obama's Grandmother.

You are making even less sense than usual.

[xrayzebra]

i'm sorry were you hoping Jesse Jackson Jr., who is one of the top campaign managers for Obama, would side with his father and demand to see Obama's nuts cut off?

you're an ass old man

What would have been really funny is if Jesse had and then given them to Hillary for her Testical Lock Box.......

You are making even less sense than usual.

Son you got to keep up with what is going on. I know it is a drag, but try. Okay?

[ChumpDumper]

Son you got to keep up with what is going on. I know it is a drag, but try. Okay?

Show me where McCain fired Gramm.

[xrayzebra]

Show me where McCain fired Gramm.

Gramm calls slowdown 'mental'
By: Mike Allen
July 10, 2008 02:44 PM EST

Former Sen. Phil Gramm, a top economic adviser to presumptive GOP nominee John McCain, referred to the economic slowdown as "a mental recession" and called the United States “a nation of whiners.”

The comments, in an interview with The Washington Times, could hurt the campaign’s efforts to convince working-class Americans that McCain feels their pain.

McCain strongly disavowed the comments today , saying Phil Gramm "does not speak for me — I speak for me."

"So I strongly disagree," McCain told reporters gathered for a press conference.

Democrats immediately condemned the remarks as “callous” and quickly began working to divert widespread attention to them.

Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton shot back: "[T]he American people know that our economic problems aren’t just in their heads. They don’t need psychological relief, they need real relief. And that’s what Barack Obama will provide as president."

The Democratic National Committee issued a statement led, “Out of Touch Much, Phil.”
See also

* Obama walks the abortion minefield
* What about Bob? GOP mum on Barr
* Dems searching their souls on drilling

A McCain official said: “Phil Gramm’s comments are not representative of John McCain’s views. John McCain travels the country every day talking to Americans who are hurting, feeling pain at the pump and worrying about how they’ll pay their mortgage. That’s why he has a realistic plan to deliver immediate relief at the gas pump, grow our economy and put Americans back to work.”

The Times said Gramm said he expects a McCain administration would inherit an economy “weighed down above all by the conviction of many Americans that economic conditions are the worst in two or three decades and that America is in decline.”

The Times quoted him as saying: “You've heard of mental depression; this is a mental recession. ... We have sort of become a nation of whiners."

“You just hear this constant whining, complaining, about a loss of compe iveness, America in decline. ... We've never been more dominant; we've never had more natural advantages than we have today.”

Karen Finney, the Democratic National Committee’s communications director, said: “What John McCain, George Bush, Phil Gramm just don't understand is that the American people aren't whining about the state of the economy; they are suffering under the weight of it — the weight of eight years of Bush-enomics that John McCain and Phil Gramm have vowed to continue.

“How dare john McCain and his advisers so callously dismiss the challenges the American people face? No wonder voters feel John McCain is out of touch. He and his campaign don't even understand the everyday issues Americans are dealing with.”



© 2008 Capitol News Company, LLC

I misled you in as much as I misspelled Gramm name. Confused you I should say.

[ChumpDumper]

Show me where McCain fired Gramm.

[smeagol]

Funny incident.

[Nbadan]

Anyone want to take a guess who was funding Al Sharpton's 2004 Presidential campaign?